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Thuringia
This article is about the nation that is the main setting of the campaign. For other uses, see the forest named Thuringervald. Thuringia takes the place of Germany in the Mundy A Kingdom of Humans established in the early portion of the Third Age of the World. Now almost a thousand years old, the Thuringian Kingdom exists as a large power in its region of the world. Thuringia possesses nearly twice the area of its neighbors and boasts and organizational system unrivaled by any known to its citizens. The current ruler is King Aldebrand II. Its capital is Thuringigarde. History & Politics Prehistory Thuringia was inhabited by humans during the First Age of the World. They served the gods' purposes and at the end of the age, the gods left them to fend for themselves. For the early part of the Second Age of the World, these humans formed tribes and developed their society to the point of well equipped iron-age farming. Having ceased their nomadic travels, they gathered into villages that grew with increasing complexity as competition for resources grew. Inter-tribal competition forced political unification under a king through a violent series of wars. This new kingdom never settled into peace as rivals constantly challenged the king's authority. Tiberian Province As the Tiberian Empire secured its new territories, its leaders sought a new outlet for their new power and resources. A Tiberian legion marched from the Varnan capital eastward into the massive Thuringervald forest. After a long and devastating march, a small band of centurions reached the Thuringian King's capital at Thuringergarde. When the King discovered their mission was to conquer his kingdom, they were executed and sent back to Varna in pieces. An second invasion departed Varna shortly after the receipt of this message. Two legions supported by an entire cohort of engineers blazed a Tiberian highway through the Thuringervald while the legions protected the road and its vital supply line. The legions arrived at Thuringergarde and burned it, killed the king and established the newest province of the Tiberian Empire. As a province, Thuringia became a source of food, lumber and minerals for the ever expanding appetite of the Tiberian Empire Founding After the First Planar War destroyed the Tiberian Empire, its constituent provinces were left to fend for themselves. Unlike most provinces, the presence of the Thuringervald provided for immediate food and lumber sources for rebuilding efforts. In 111 TA, the Acts of Establishment were signed by the Thuringian Noble Varus, the Wizard of the Arcane Order Borus and the last Tiberian General in Thuringia Catulus. Varus became Alaric I, the first King of Thuringia. The Littlefolk Occupation In 170 TA, explorers from Khaz Korsan passed through Thuringia to explore the potential riches of the mountain to the south. When the dwarves began digging, they were surprised to hear someone knocking back. Gnomes and Dwarves had met for the first time in Thuringia. This alliance doomed the Thuringian Kingdom. Dwarves and Gnomes invaded. The resulting occupation lasted nearly a hundred years. The "Little Folk" put the Thuringian people to work digging massive works beneath the ground. Some of these included the "volcano tubes" that connected the various occupation fortresses. The Occupation ended when a popular movement within Khaz Korsan advocated for the freeing of all slaves, everywhere. These abolitionists came to power and revoke alliance with the Gnomes. An invasion of Thuringia by abolitionist forces removed the remaining Gnome and Dwarf slavers from power. The Second Planar War The Second Planar War was a watershed moment for the Thuringian monarchy. Rallying to the cause of good, the knights and conscript armies of Thuringia fought hell's invasion forces to a standstill and began a pushback to free Khaz Korsan. With the surface of Thuringia and Khaz Korsan secure, teams of dwarves and Thuringians moved deep into the Mundy to fight in the Underdark. With the fight no longer in Thuringia proper, its economy turned to war production of food and arms. The arrival of Dragon Riders from Briton under the command of St. Jean started a process of reconquest. At the end of the war, Thuringia emerged the most powerful economy and the most ready to take advantage of its neighbors following the war. Fears in Tiber and Varna of Thuringian conquest drove them to maintain their wartime armies. But the threat never materialized, as the King disbanded his armies and sent his people home. The Grand Alliance The friendship between Khaz Korsan and Thuringia that began when the dwarves were instrumental in the freeing of occupied Thuringia grew during the Second Planar War to heights of cooperation never seen on the Mundy previously. Based on a solid trade of food for gems and metals, further expanded when the populations of the nations fought side-by-side. After the war, the two nations cemented this relationship with an expansive treaty that demilitarized their borders, eliminated trade tariffs and expanded the police powers of the Thuringian and Korsan nobles to included each other's territories. Due process, honor, and safety were guaranteed by this treaty to all Thuringians and Korsanites. The ever present threats outside their borders forced the nations to cooperate militarily, expanding their commitments and military requirements. The Royal Army To meet these commitments, King Aldebrand II formed the Royal Army, which drew conscripts from all regions based on population. Conscription was by lottery, although draftees could substitute a volunteer to serve time for them. All too often, these volunteers were illegal slaves or serfs forced into military service for their owner or lord's sons. The army was organized in time to respond to the Undermining of Kassel. After repelling the assault from the Underdark, the Army spread throughout Thuringia, conducting surveys and establishing outposts long left idle. One post, in the west conducted a survey of Underdark Seal, repelled an assault on the border by the Varnan Army, eliminated a corrupt major and his minions, and re-discovered the invisible castle Hoenhiem. Expanding the Alliance Eulliam Berthold, a bard from Farbridge, was the officer responsible for these successes. Summoned to the capital, he and his team foiled a plot by the Arcane Order to overthrow all worldly governments and replace them with a Mageocracy. Soon after, he became a senior advisor to the King. He dispatched a team to the North on a mission bearing the Sword of Thuringia and with the goal of freeing the Norse Lands from the grip of the unknown evil that ruled there. Along the way they forged an alliance with the Dwarves of Khaz Korsan, the Norse exiles in Sydligland and established a new kingdom in the Norse Lands. Geography Bordered on the North by the Korsan mountains, the south by the mountains of Waraugheskenel, Thuringia's borders extend from the Werra River in the east to the western edge of the Thuringervald forest. Thuringigarde Kassel Thuringervald Government & Society The Acts of Establishment During the fall of the Tiberian Empire, Thuringia lacked any semblance of government. Bandits, invading tribes and monstrous predators ran rampant. There were no cities left from before the First Planar War, and the few organized towns were sheltered behind stone and wood walls. Each town was ruled by its lord and no cooperation existed. As the situation became more and more desperate, the last remaining authorities in Kassel accepted the loss of the Tiberian Empire and organized a new, fledgling government. The Acts of Establishment were signed and Kassel became the center of a new country. The Acts delineated a monarchy based on personal loyalty and fealty. Each lord that pledged his allegiance to the new king retained his lands. The king's authority extended to all these feudal lands and were maintained by a delicate balance of political strategy supported by the Church of Serra, the Arcane Order and the King's own military forces. Monarch The King ruled through personal rule, which drew its strength and resources from powerful and loyal nobles, clergy and wizards. In order to govern such a vast realm the cooperation and influence of the Church and the Arcane Order were essential. These orders form the educated backbone of the government and its offices. Often, clergy filled both governmental offices and their religious offices. The King, being a monarch crowned by an official of the Church of Serra, also bestowed fiefdoms upon clergy. The Arcane Order vied for these appointments as well, in an effort to secure the future for their organization as well as the magical stability of the realm. Reforms Aldebrand I ascended to the throne upon the death of his father, the elderly King Yoric VIII. Coronated during a time of unparalleled peace, Aldebrand sought reforms throughout his lands to ensure order, sometimes in preference to peace. The first of the reforms brought order to the feudal system of fiefdoms that had arisen amongst the nobility of Thuringia. Seizing the lands from all the nobility using a privately funded national army and backed by the Church and Arcane Order, he redistributed the lands to nobles in order of precedence. Thus, all nobles held their fiefdoms from the King. Most of the most powerful nobles were re-granted the lands they had possessed prior to the seizure, and in payment of their backing of the reforms, they were awarded additional land. These supporters had little interruption of their administration of the lands. Nobles that did not support the reforms were deemed in rebellion and destroyed. The second reform, built as a compromise with the nobles who had been divested of land, tied the peasantry to the land they worked. By legally binding serf and fief, no noble would go without a workforce when economic fortunes meant better jobs elsewhere. The influx of peasants into cities and towns also ceased, letting these communities slow their growth and adapt to various changes in economics, technology and organization of their own citizenry. The third reform removed cities and towns of sufficient size from fiefdoms. Patricians of the city or town were then given control of the community, as representatives of the King. These seats were passed by nomination of the previous patrician, or a vote of the sitting council in session. The mayor, governor or other such head of the city or town often would be appointed by the King or his Representative. Religion Worship in Thuringia has always been to a pantheon of deities that reveal themselves in direct ways to the population. During the time of the Tiberian Empire, the Greyhawk Deities were worshiped. After the First Planar War, worship of these gods waned, primarily due to their near destruction by the evil gods during the war. Ascendancy of the Church of Serra After the First Planar War, the Church of Serra grew as an organization from the remnants of the Church of Pelor and the military orders of St. Cuthbert. Serra, previously a fledgling lower diety, survived the First Planar War and became the last remaining patron of order and good. The Church's power and influence grew as they attached themselves to the monarchy. By the time of the Second Planar War, the Church dominated the worship practices in Thuringia. Economy & Technology As a post-iron age nation, Thuringians enjoy the benefit of most technological advances extant in the world. These include the ability to forge steel, utilize wind, water and magically powered machines like mills, wells, cranes, presses and hammers and construct large sail powered ships. Unlike other human cultures in the Mundy, Thuringian society rarely suppresses curiosity and invention. Thuringia's economy, powered by its technological base and encouraged by its society produces far more food than it consumes, preventing starvation and population stagnation. With its controlled surplus of food, Thuringia dominates foreign trade in the Mundy. Thuringian imports include metals from Khaz Korsan, silks from O'Emran, meat from Thracia, and literature and entertainment from Tiber. Category:Nations of Mundugus